Heel-machine



(No Model.)

J. H. CUNNINGHAM.

HEEL MACHINE.

Patented Apr. 1'7, 1888.

rne/see N. PETERS, Phulo-Lflhoxmphar, wumn wn, D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES H. CUNNINGHAM, OF BROOKTON, ASSIGNOR TO JAMES W. BROOKS, TRUSTEE, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

HEEL-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 381,493, dated April 17, 1888.

Application filed June 24, 1886. Serial No. 206,057. (No model.)

.To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES H. CUNNINGHAM, of Brockton, county of Plymouth, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for Pricking or Indenting a Top Lift Attached to a Heel, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

In the manufacture of boots and shoes it is frequently desirable to provide the top lift of a heel with steel or other slugs after the top lift has been blinded, as usual, on the large ends of the nails employed to attach the heel to the sole, the slugs preventing unequal wearing of the tread end of the heel.

In accordance with my invention the pattern or top-lift plate employed in a heel-trimming machine, and against which the top lift is held pressed while the same is being applied or trimmed, is provided with aseries of points to prick or indent the top lift for the reception of steel or other slugs without coming in contact with the nails previously employed to attach the heel to the sole.

As herein illustrated, my invention is adapted to be employed in connection with a heel to be trimmed in a heel-trimming machine,

such as represented in United States Patent No. 267,5i4, to which reference may be had, the said patent describing a movable jack, in which isjacked or confined the shoe, the heel of which, previously applied, is to be trimmed.

Figure l in elevation represents the face of a pattern-plate embodying myinvention; Fig. 2, a section of Fig. 1 in the dotted linewaz, the said figure also showing in section a part of one of the arms for the shoe-holding jack; and Fig. 3 represents the top-lift end of the heel, which has been pricked in accordance with my invention, some of the pricked holes being shown as filled in with slugs.

The pattern-plate a (shown in the drawings) is provided with a series of projecting pins or points, I), extended therethrough, as shown best at the top of Fig. 2. This pattern-plate has preferably an attached face, 0, of leather, to prevent the edge of the heel-trimming knife from coming in contact with the edge of the metal plate a. The pattern-plate a, common to the machine described in the said patent, has at or near its center a hole to enable the pattern-plate to be placed over the center Q, common to said patent, and shown best in Fig. 7 thereof by the same letter, the said center forming part of a loose stud held in a socket at one end of the arm A also common to the said patent, the stud being adjustable longitudinally by a screw having a nut, Q, also common to the said patent.

In practicc,a shoe provided with an attached heel and with a blinded top lift will be placed in the jack of a trimming-machine, substantially as provided for in the said patent, and by a suitable screw or other device acting at the interior of the shoe, the top lift covering.

the tread end of the heel to be trimmed will be pressed against the face a, the points 1) entering and passing more or less through the top lift, which I have represented by the letter n in Fig. 3, the said points 12 making holes e, in which may be driven by hand suitable slugs,f, some of which are shown in Fig. 3 as driven into the said holes.

Pricking the top lift, as described, while jacking the same preparatory to trimming, enables the formation of a series of holes, which will be located at a uniform distance from the edge of the trimmed heel, and which will also be so located in the top lift as to obviate the possibility of the slugs f striking the usual nails employed to attach the heel to the sole.

I do not desire to limit my invention in its application to the pattern-plate of a heel-trimming machine of only the kind represented in the said pattern, but desire to practice my invention and to embody the same in any usual heel-trimming machine having a plate against which the blinded top lift is pressed during the operation of trimming the heel.

I am aware that Patent No. 208,653 shows a plate having two registering projections to enter the top lift near the breast end thereof,

to thus prevent the twisting of the top lift with 5 relation to the plate; but in such patent the portion of the top lift so pricked by the projection referred to is removed when breasting the heel.

I am also aware that awls have been used to prick through a pile of lifts in the manufacture of heels; but prior to .my invention I am not aware that a heel having a top lift blinded upon it has ever been indented entirely about its edge at a short distance therefrom, so as to leave a series of holes uniformly distant from the edge, to thereby indicate to the operator exactly the points where slug-nails can be driven into the top lift to make asymmetrical and Well-appearing heel.

I claim In a heel-trimmingmachine, the pattern plate, as a, provided with a series of short fixed points arranged about the said plate to indent JAMES H. CUNNINGHAM.

Witnesses:

BERNIOE J. NOYES, O. M. GONE, 

